Russia: No plan for large evacuation from Syria

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's foreign minister says that Moscow has no plans to launch a large-scale evacuation of its citizens from Syria, after 77 Russians left the troubled country and were flown out to Moscow.

Sergey Lavrov said that some 1,000 of tens of thousands of Russians residing in Syria want to leave the country in the midst of civil war that so far has killed over 60,000 people.

Lavrov said that Russia already had pulled out families of diplomats from Syria but has no immediate plan to reduce its Embassy staff, adding that there are contingency plans if the situation changes.

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Russia has been the main protector of Syrian President Bashar Assad, shielding him from the United Nations sanctions over his crackdown on an uprising that began in March 2011.